I was walking on a forest path a few weeks ago and contemplating the majestic trees, the intricate spider webs, the tiny mushrooms, insects and sun rays stretching towards hollows. When I got phone signal, I took a break and went online to share some of that beauty with my friends on social media. The “wall” showed me a completely different world. Many days off social media shaped my view of the world in a way that I could enjoy being alive. Then suddenly the social media wall (where you can see what others are preoccupied with) provoked this dread to live… I saw news of traffic collisions, of NGOs difficulty to survive and provide what the state doesn’t, of people with altered faces in photos to look different, people commenting with anger at some political initiative gone wrong, etc. What the hell, world? This is not the world I know. Wait — which worlds do we live in?
What we expose our minds to leads us to forming specific representations and narratives about who we are, who others are and what the world is like. Among people I love and who love me too, I have a rather good self-image, because I don’t even think of what I’m like. We tend to wonder what is wrong with us when things go wrong for us. To think so, we basically tell ourselves there is something we could do to change what’s happening to us — it is a way to experience some degree of power over what we’re powerless about. When we experience an intense suffering that we cannot get rid of by ourselves we look for the others and assess them as wrong or right based on how they are able to bring our souls to peace and tranquility. When we feed our minds with representations of the world we live in, these views have the capacity to change how we relate to ourselves, to life and to other people — our views on the world are strongly linked with our motivation to exist.
How does one live seeing that the world is full of crime, corruption and injustice? How about someone who is exposed to representations of a world full of superficial people concerned only with image? What about those who find themselves surrounded by crowds that make aggressive comments on almost anything instead of providing a helping hand? For a while I watched only astronomical events or gastronomic suggestions on social media and never a hint of anything wrong with the world, and I had more trust in the probability of living a tranquil life, as it is, without wanting much more than a periodic eye contact with the starry sky and some mischievous hangouts with some fun people.
The main danger of living in a single story or narrative is that it leads to the formation of a conception on which we then base our decisions and which we confirm at every opportunity for the sake of maintaining coherence, without checking it again critically. Our worldview shapes our daily attitudes. We think we know what’s going on. We don’t, however. We only know a story that keeps confirming itself, as that’s the main activity of our brains: to familiarise us with everything, that is to turn everything into what we already know. When you hear any story on social media or in direct conversation you can wonder who created this story, what the story presents and what it leaves out, what the purpose of such a story might be, what assumptions it is built on, where it establishes the genesis of everything that is going on and how it envisions the present and the future. Every story is a myth creation. Speech has power in creating the reality in which we live.
For a while I was trying to remove certain stories from my feed and favor others, to give myself a nice worldview and it worked a bit, however I was aware it was just another myth. Philosophical practice can provide a passage from the stability and one-sidedness of myth to the dynamic multiplicity of dialectic analysis. This is why I organise philosophy workshops for parents, teachers, psychologists, teenagers, children and professionals interested in training the mind to process information, to learn to analyse the stories they hear, to problematise them, to stretch their sight beyond the limits of their narratives and to make applied ethical decisions along their less predictable life path. It is the hardest thing when you are faced with problems in life, be they simple or complex, to be able to see beyond your own opinions and obsessions and desires and personal sufferings, to see yourself as a role player in a social system in which you did not enter willingly, but were thrown into, and which operate with you, regardless of you and disturbed by you, in ways that can be evaluated critically, but also arbitrarily and discretionarily by all opinion-givers.
Do I just want my favorite version? Not. But I don't want the singular versions of others either. A text or comment that shows a capacity for reflection interests me, calls me to think and consider various aspects of the same situation or idea. When I'm criticised for "being stuck with my view" it is usually by people who are stuck with theirs and want me to give up mine and take theirs instead. Why? We are all called to sit with the rigid and the stubborn and the unpredictable, the greedy, the selfish, the confused, etc -- because these are who we are.
It can be very difficult to accept within the alteration, that is, the transformation into another, face to face with information that attacks the coherent story created in one's own mind. It is also difficult to maintain your inner rigidity, to remain committed to a relationship, a principle, an assumed plan or a way of being authentic, face to face with the destructive forces that surround you. Ease usually comes from a systematic practice of critical thinking and a philosophical way of life.
Here are a couple of suggestions of opportunity for those interested in philosophy. The West University of Timisoara receives applications for the Master program “Philosophical counselling and consultancy” this September. I wholeheartedly recommend this program regardless of your professional field. It's a program that develops transversal skills -- useful in just about any field where you deal with people and where you're asked to think and decide and formulate speech.
I also invite you to an applied philosophy workshop, facilitated by Anca Tiurean, addressed especially to adults, teenagers and children from the age of 10, interested in developing a stimulating way of communication with collaborative critical thinking skills within the family. This one will take place on the 6th of October at the Sturz Center in Timisoara.
If you are a psychologist or psychotherapist, you are invited to my online and offline groups of philosophical practice applied in self-discovery and learning through our professional challenges. The one online takes place monthly on a Friday morning (9am to 11am) and the one offline takes place monthly on Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 8 pm.